(This series is the documentation of a 365-day project to help develop more local and regional soccer clubs in Maine, help improve the connectivity among new and existing local and regional clubs in Maine, and cultivate a more purposeful and accessible local --> regional --> state developmental pathway for all of Maine's soccer stakeholders.)
Attended Maine's 17U Girls ODP team's games at East Regionals against Eastern Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, and talked with parents and coaches about their ODP experiences over the years.
If memory serves correctly, our daughter has participated in ODP in five of the six years she's been eligible to participate (including in 2020, when programming was disrupted by COVID-19), and yesterday was the best ODP experience we've had in that time.
Communication was pretty good, the team actually had enough players to field a team with a few subs, and they played in two competitive games: A 2-0 win against Eastern Pennsylvania that wasn't as close as the score indicates, and a 3-1 loss to New Hampshire that was closer than the score indicates.
The only similar experience was when U.S. Youth Soccer cut the sprawling region (it spans Maine to West Virginia) in half due to COVID-19 restrictions, and this event was located in Massachusetts.
Otherwise, poor communication, too few players, and/or uncompetitive games have been our experience more often than not. And unfortunately, it sounds like those are all too common features of other families' experiences as well over the years.
Daily Time: 11 hours
Total Time: 192.0 hours
Daily Miles: 26 miles
Total Miles: 3,765 miles
Related: Now is a Good Time to Reimagine Maine Soccer (December 11, 2024)
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